Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!samsung!think!yale!cmcl2!rutgers!texbell!sugar!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: strncpy
Message-ID: <ZC91DJ4xds13@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 23 Jan 90 13:55:56 GMT
References: <e-mail_to_poser> <11527@csli.Stanford.EDU> <000003Q@cdis-1.UUCP> <11616@csli.Stanford.EDU> <48314938.f69e@phobos.UUCP> <11864@csli.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Lines: 7

> That's why it is a bastard function - it is designed to work with
> the null-termination convention but does not guarantee closure.

What it does is provide the most generally useful facility. If it always
null-terminated, it couldn't be used for copies into a known fix-sized
buffer. And since you know the length, you can always null-terminate
the string yourself.
-- 
 _--_|\  Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. <peter@ficc.uu.net>.
/      \
\_.--._/ Xenix Support -- it's not just a job, it's an adventure!
      v  "Have you hugged your wolf today?" `-_-'